Earlier today, three voters of Somali origin at the Brian Coyle Center in Minneapolis told me — and two told an election observer — that a translator working there was instructing people to vote for Sen. Norm Coleman.

In addition, the presence of a Coleman staffer who says he came to volunteer his services as a challenger or translator also stirred controversy between election judges and GOP challengers on the scene.

The man is well-known in the Somali community because he works for Coleman's campaign, witnesses told MNIndy.

Later, the election judge asked Wardere to leave the voting area, since he was not allowed to serve as both an election challenger and a translator — for his own part, Wardere said he was uncertain whether he was called in as a challenger or a translator — nor could there be two GOP challengers in the room. From around 11:00 onward, Wardere sat in a nearby room, greeting and conversing with people. “People know him and like him,” one person told me. “But we all know him as a campaigner.”

We'll keep you updated on this story as well as any other voter problems that arise in the next three hours.